The Heist
by Marauder Number Fiive
Summary: A new job. A new friend. Incredibly attractive coworkers. Death Eaters. The largest and most complicated bank robbery England has ever seen. Lily Evans's life will never be the same. Rated M just in case  R
1. Chapter 1

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A twenty-two-year-old Lily Evans walked up the clean white steps of Gringotts proudly. She had suffered through five years of Hell for this day. Ever since she was a Fifth Year at Hogwarts and went to career advice with Professor McGonnagall, she knew that this was what she wanted; To be a curse breaker. 

Lily was dressed smartly in a knee length pure black skirt. She had a crisp white button down shirt, covered by a dark gray blazer. Her three-inch black heels added to her height, a measly 5'2". A large green tote was slung over her shoulder, holding her never-ending paper work. Lily's long curly red hair was pulled back in a perfect bun, not a hair out of place. To top off this look, Lily had her frameless reading glasses perched on her nose, making her vibrant green eyes appear even larger.

Any onlooker might have thought that this woman was a pushover. 'A pretty girl like her, there was no way that she could actually work for herself. She hasn't the brains or the strength to make it in the real world. Perhaps she should take up modeling.' That was what Lily heard all throughout her life. But if there was one thing that Lily couldn't stand, it was those ditzy air-headed models. She should know, her mother forced her to associate with them quite frequently.

Janice Pillari-Evans was of a very high social status. Coming from a poor family, she was only concerned about wealth. When she met the wealthy Christopher Evans at college, she did all she could to get his attention. The two married once they had graduated, Chris entranced by her beauty and Janice attracted to his money.

Janice herself became a model, retiring after giving birth to her first daughter, Petunia. Barely a year later, another daughter was born, Lily. It was Janice's dream to raise proper ladies, marry them off to some rich blokes, and then have them become models. Petunia was fulfilling those dreams so far. She was always prim and proper and was engaged to a walrus, Vernon Dursley. Unfortunately, Petunia did not have the looks for a model, so she was satisfied being a simple housewife.

Since Janice could not make Petunia a model, it was her life's ambition to turn Lily into one. Sadly for Janice, Lily was the exact opposite of Petunia. She was rude towards her mother, always claiming that she cared about no one but herself. When they were children, Petunia was found having tea with the neighbors while Lily was out playing baseball with the boys. Petunia loved dressing up in the most beautiful and expensive gowns, while Lily preferred a sweatshirt and jeans.

Lily figured that it was because of her mother that she was so ambitious. Determined to be the exact opposite of her mother and sister, Lily strove for abnormality all through her childhood. She had been so excited when accepted into Hogwarts. She was able to piss of her mother, be different, and escape all at once.

While at Hogwarts, Lily was probably the hardest worker there. She was top of all her classes. One day, she thought about joining the Quidditch team. She told her current boyfriend, Amos Diggory, this and he laughed at her, saying, 'Oh, Lily! Don't be ridiculous. You're too small, too fragile. Leave sports to the men.' Just to irk him, Lily tried out for Beater, the most aggressive spot, and made it. Then she dumped that loser on his sorry ass. That was seven years ago, when she was a fifth year.

Lily was now a fully-grown woman, in both the Muggle and magical worlds. She was able to make her own decisions, only meeting her mother when threatened to be disowned. Lily sometimes considered taking her mother up on these threats, but she loved her father too much. He actually cared about her. She was tougher now than she was in Hogwarts, yet even more beautiful.

For the past four years, Lily had been training in Egypt for a job position at Gringotts. Anyone in the magical world could tell you that this was the most challenging job easily. For the human workers were not trained only as bankers, but as Aurors and Healers also. For some, it was odd that they had to go through Auror and Healing training, but it actually made sense. Gringotts was the only wizarding bank in the world, making it a huge target. The employees had to be trained for all circumstances, including a robbery. Nice people do not rob banks, so they had to be trained to handle Death Eaters, just like the Aurors. Healers, like all other people, were forbidden to go anywhere but the lobby and their own vaults, so the workers also had to be capable of healing themselves.

The first year of training focused completely on the mental side. This was your mathematical part. The trainees were given the most difficult arithmetic problems possible and were tutored by the greatest mathematicians of the modern world, both Muggle and wizard. The stress of the first year was unbelievable, with a test at least once a week. Their final exam for the mathematics portion had been to calculate the amount of stone bricks used in a pyramid. This might seem easy, but the time limit was three minutes. Also wands, parchment, and ink were forbidden – the math had to be done in your head.

Those that passed the first year moved onto the next, Healer training. Many said that this was actually the easiest part of training. The hopefuls spent a year brewing potions to different poisons, having to learn the difference between Veritaserum and Nuritaserum. One could make you tell the truth, while the other would slay the drinker to pieces, agonizingly slow. They learned to mend bones and recognize different illnesses.

The brilliant minds were truly put to the test during the three years of Auror training. This was based basically on your physical fitness, wit, and how you were during emergencies. Some of the smartest witches and wizards ever did not reach their full potential because they failed the Auror training portion. The bankers-to-be ran daily laps, learned interrogation skills, and practiced every spell known. To tell the truth, their training was harder than the actual Aurors'. The bankers would be in charge of not only their customers' lives, but also their fortunes.

All the training was done in Egypt, which is about ten times hotter than Britain. Additionally, the normal Healers and Aurors in training got to go home to their nice warm beds after each night. The Gringotts trainees shared tents with another person on the hard, hot Egyptian ground. The program started out with about fifty-five hopefuls from around the world. Lily was one of the eleven that made it, and was the only Brit.

So as you can see, Lily was extremely proud that she had made it this far. She had seen countless amounts of her colleagues fail, going home with empty hands and heavy hearts. Lily and her pupils that had passed were about to be rewarded greatly though. Around the world, young bankers were about to learn the many secrets of Gringotts. It was one of the most exciting jobs possible. The pay wasn't bad either – 200 galleons a week. Lily's instructor had always said 'The elite get paid in a league of their own.'

Lily stopped at the top of the steps and took in her surroundings. She had always thought that Diagon Alley was brilliant. With the numerous shops, the dazzling lights, and the constant hustle and bustle, it was truly that place that never slept.

Lily turned and pushed the heavy door open. She walked over to the front desk, where about a dozen goblins were working. "Excuse me, Mr. Galeesh," she said with a quick look at his nameplate. "I'm the new worker, Lily Evans."

"Ah, Ms. Evans," Galeesh replied in his scaly voice. "Mr. Murano is expecting you. Go through the third door on your left and you will come to a corridor. Make the first right and that is his office."

"Thank you," she said, but the creature appeared to have lost his interest in talking.

Following Galeesh's instructions, Lily found herself facing a white door with _Carlos Murano – Head of Gringotts, Britain_ inscribed on it. 'Okay, so this guy's my boss,' Lily thought to herself. 'Best make a good first impression.' She straightened the invisible wrinkles on her skirt and gave her hair a quick pat. Taking a deep breath, Lily brought her hand up and knocked hardly on the door three times.

There was some scurrying behind the door and a deep voice called out, "Just a minute!" Several seconds later, a Hispanic looking man opened the door. He had thick, curly black hair with grays blended in here and there. His eyes were black, yet friendly looking. The man's nose looked as if someone had tried to break it several times, giving it a squashed sort of appearance. Underneath that nose was a massive mustache. It, like his hair, was black with some gray hairs. He looked as if he was about 5' 10", and was a little plump.

"You must be Ms. Evans!" he said as a smile appeared on his face. Lily also noticed that he spoke with a soft Spanish accent that was barely there. "It's a pleasure to meet you," he continued as he stuck his hand out for her to shake. "I'm Carlos Murano, head of Gringotts."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Murano," Lily said as she shook his hand firmly. "As you already know, I'm Lily Evans."

"Lily, please!" he said energetically. "Call me Carlos! We've all went through the same training, I just did it about thirty years earlier."

"Yes, Carlos," she said.

"Now I'm terribly sorry to cut our first meeting short, but I'm about to be late for a meeting with the Minister. This corridor is all offices of the workers, humans and goblins alike, so just pick one and I'm sure that they will help you. If you're uneasy about goblins, just pick a human. It's rather easy to tell which is which by the names on the doors. Bye!"

Lily stood, staring at the door for several moments. She was so shocked that anyone would be able to move that quickly. 'Then again,' she thought to herself, 'he's head of the only bank in wizarding England.'

Following Murano's orders, she walked a bit more up the hall. Stopping at the next door, she read _Anthony Dolocelli – Curse Breaker._ Not nearly as nervous as before, she raised her hand and knocked.

Lily's eyes widened as the door opened. Standing before her was an extremely handsome Italian man. He appeared to be nearly a foot taller than Lily was, standing at probably 6'1", and seemed to be very well built. He had pure black hair that fell gracefully just below his eyebrows. The fringe barely covered his eyes, which were the color of deep chocolate.

The two of them must have gaped at each other for a full minute until the man spoke. "You…you…h-here? What do you want?" he said rudely after stuttering.

Lily snapped out of her daze by these harsh words. "What?" she said, taken aback. How could one of her colleagues be this…mean?

"You heard me!" he snapped. "What do you want?" Still shocked by his rudeness, Lily said nothing. "Come on," he said impatiently. "I haven't got all day, so are you gonna talk or what?"

Finding her voice, Lily said, "I'm Lily Evans and I was wondering if –"

But Anthony cut her off. "Look, this is an employee only area, so get lost." With that, he slammed his office door right in her face. Lily could have sworn that she heard him muttering, "Stupid girl…disturbing me while I'm working…"

So shocked that anyone could be that unpleasant, Lily stared at the door for several moments. She kept standing there until she heard the door on the opposite side of the hall open.

Turning around, she saw a pretty brunette standing opposite of her. She had light brown hair and light blue eyes. Lily noticed that unlike her, she was dressed very casually. She was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, along with a pair of running shoes. She was also somewhat pleased that they were about the same height; She wouldn't be the only petite person around here.

"Hi, can I help you?" the girl asked.

"Yes, I'm Lily Evans, the new curse breaker," Lily answered. "Can you help me out today?"

To Lily's surprise, the girl squealed and gave her a huge hug. "Thank Merlin you're here!" she exclaimed. "For the past two years, I've been the only woman working here! You have no idea what it's like, not having another girl to talk to!"

The girl stepped back, still beaming. "Anyway," she continued, "I'm Taylor Scarlet, and it's a huge pleasure to meet you. I'd be more than happy to show you around today. Let's go find your office!"

They walked down the long hall a bit. After passing _Aiden McHugh,_ they came to a door that read _Lily Evans – Curse Breaker_. "Oh my god," Lily said, touching where her name was inscribed. "I get my own office already?"

"Well yeah," Taylor said with a bit of humor in her voice. "You've gone through all the training, so you're just the same as everyone else. Let's go inside now!"

Lily pulled out the key that she was given after finishing the training program and put it into the door. With a click, it swung open, revealing a huge office. "This is mine?" Lily asked incredulously. The office was plain, having only a desk and a small table. It was obviously meant for her to decorate to her will.

Taylor sighed. "Yes, we've gone through this already. Now let me tell you some things." Here, she pulled out her own wand and pointed it at the door, shutting it. _"Silencio," _she muttered. "Now, you're way over dressed. They don't care if we come in in our pajamas, as long as we get the work done. Also, Carlos has a strict no relations policy."

"What do you mean by that?" Lily asked confusedly. "Does that mean we can't be friends with our other workers?"

Taylor laughed. "You know, Evans, you're really funny. No, we can't shag our other workers. I fucking hate that rule, other wise I'd be in Tony Dolocelli or Aiden McHugh's pants in a heartbeat."

"I met Dolocelli, but who's McHugh?" Lily asked.

"McHugh has the office next to yours, lucky bitch. He's a nice Irish bloke. It's okay though, Tony has the office across from mine, so I get to see him often enough. Aiden and Tony are great friends, you can barely see them apart."

"Is Dolocelli always so…mean?" Lily asked nervously. "And is Aiden mean too?"

Taylor gave a small sigh. "So you've encountered 'Dolocelli's Wrath?'" she asked. Lily nodded. "Tony's a great guy, but he's a really hard worker. He can be pretty uptight sometimes, which is a shame with a body like that. Aiden is much more laid back and likes to joke a lot."

"Anyway, enough about men," Taylor said. "Where did you get trained?"

"Egypt," Lily answered.

"Merlin, you get trained in Egypt _and_ you're next to Aiden? Some girls get all the luck!" Taylor said, pouting slightly.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked. "Doesn't everyone get trained at the same place?"

"Nope!" Taylor said. "They have a five year rotation. Siberia, Egypt, Antarctica, the Bermuda Triangle, and Peru. I was trained in Peru."

"What's so bad about Peru?" Lily questioned. "Sure, there are lots of mountains, but other than that what's the big deal?"

Taylor gave a somewhat dark chuckle. "You've never been to Peru, have you?" Lily shook her head. "Not only is it a huge rallying point for South American Death Eaters, but there are also giants there, the only colony in the Western Hemisphere. Every other day we were attacked, either by the Death Eaters or the giants. I feel really bad for Aiden and Tony though. They started the year before you did (the year after me), and got trained in Siberia. They had to deal with the cold and Siberian Ice Dragons. Those things make the sphinxes you played with look like kittens."

"You had it easy, like I said," Taylor finished. "Imagine spending five years in Antarctica!"

"Where'd you go to school?" Lily asked Taylor.

"Beauxbatons," she replied.

"Oh! Parlez-vous français?

"Naturellement! Vous ne grandissez pas en France et ne parlez pas la langue!" Taylor said rapidly.

The two girls laughed lightly. "Anyway, where did you go?"

"Hogwarts, of course!"

Taylor smiled and said, "You must know my cousin then. James Potter?"

Lily's eyes widened at the name. "Know him? I dated him all throughout seventh year!"

"You're the infamous Lily!" Taylor cried out. "What ever happened between the two of you? James told me that the two of you split, but he never mentioned why."

Lily sighed and said, "That's another story for another time."

Picking up that she didn't want to talk about it, Taylor said, "Okay, let's go and meet some new people! Well, new for you, old for me."

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**Hello! I know that I really shouldn't be starting a new story, but this idea has been swirling around in my head for awhile. I'm not sure if I'm going to switch this to my main story, or keep updating **_**A Missing Spark**_** more. What do you think? Remember to review:)**

**Isabel**


	2. Chapter 2

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Taylor led Lily back to the main lobby of the bank. Taking her to one of the many doors that read 'Staff Only,' she stopped and looked at Lily. "This is the conference room," she explained, "There should be at least one slacker in here. My bet is that it's Aiden."

Turning the brass handle, Taylor revealed a large room. There was a long table in the center with about two dozen black swivel chairs. Two men were occupying a pair of these chairs and appeared to be seeing who could spin the fastest. "C'mon old man, you've gotta do better than that!" cried one of them.

Taylor rolled her eyes at Lily, who giggled in response. Noticing the girls' presence, one of the men stopped his eyes wide. The other stood up and called out triumphantly, "Yes! I knew that there was no way you could beat me!" Swaying dangerously, the man fell back into his chair. "All hail Aiden McHugh, master of the swirly chairs!"

The man who had lost the competition stood up and swayed slightly. Catching his balance, he walked over to Taylor and Lily. "Hello Taylor," he said in a deep, gravelly voice.

"Hey Skippy," Taylor answered. "This is Lily Evans, the new curse breaker. Lily, this is Austin Skipper."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Skipper," Lily said politely, shaking his hand.

"Same to you, Lily. I won't have this 'Mr. Skipper business though. Call me Skippy," he replied. Skippy could probably be Lily's grandfather. He had snow colored hair, although there was a full head of it. Skippy had light blue eyes, which were magnified by his large glasses. Standing at around 5'7", Lily pinned him at around the age of 70. Despite his age, Skippy exerted some boyish charm that drew you to him. He was very plump, though showed some signs of once being athletic. He resembled Santa Clause greatly, just missing the mustache and beard.

"I'm sorry to run like this, but I was supposed to be in a meeting ten minutes ago. I'll just tell the Lestranges that I was in a conference," Skippy said. He walked out of the room with a wink towards his former competitor. Nearly as soon as he had disappeared, his head popped back in. "Aiden – you got lucky this time. Next time, you're going down."

The other man shot him a smile and said, "Bring it, old man." With another wink, Skippy was gone again.

The man named Aiden stood up and walked over to Taylor and Lily. As he approached them, Lily saw that he was very good looking. He was probably around 6 foot and had broad shoulders. His copper colored hair was floppy and reached just below his ears. He had dazzling light green eyes and wore a smile that screamed 'I know I'm good looking.'

Taylor shot him a disapproving look and said, "This is Aiden McHugh. Aiden, this is –"

"Lily Evans!" he said. To the girls' surprise, he gave Lily a huge hug, picking her right off the ground. "I thought that you'd never get here! We're gonna be the best of friends, just you wait."

"Umm…Aiden?" Taylor asked cautiously. "How do you know Lily?"

"Oh, umm," he started nervously, putting Lily back down. "They've had her name plate up for a week now! Yeah, that's it…" he trailed off, sounding as if he was trying to convince himself rather than the girls. "It's been so lonely not having anyone next to me." Here, he pouted slightly, making his eyes seem even lighter than before.

"Aiden, you are the weirdest person I have ever met," Scarlet stated with a slight frown on her face.

"Love you too, Taylor," he said offhandedly. "Anyway, I want to get to know you better Lily! Have a seat," he said, motioning to the chairs.

Sitting cautiously in the nearest chair, Lily was more than a bit shocked at this man's friendliness. And to think he was the best friend of Anthony Dolocelli!

"Okay," Aiden started. "You went to Hogwarts." This was not a question but a statement.

"I'm really very sorry, but you are scaring me," Lily said nervously.

Throwing his head back and laughing, Aiden just seemed very amused. "Lilybean, you haven't seen anything yet."

The three sat there for another half hour, talking and getting to know each other. Unknown to them, there was another listening to them the entire time. Standing at the doorway, Anthony Dolocelli hung to their every word.

Rushing to his office, he pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill. Writing two simple words on it, he hurried over to his owl. "Take this to him as soon as possible," he whispered.

Many miles away, a pure black owl flew into a window, right into spider-like hands. Taking the letter, the unnaturally long finger opened the envelope. As he read the two words, a smirk formed on his thin lips. There was a malicious glint in his blood red eyes as he said to his followers, "It's her."

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**OMG! I'm alive! Sorry that I haven't updated in a while…5 months isn't THAT long, is it? **

**Isabel**


	3. Chapter 3

James Potter was running. He was late. Again. Moody was going to explode on him. Again. So basically all was normal in the life of James Potter. James was always running notoriously late. But with his charm, wit, and looks no one really seemed to care. Except for Moody that is. If James was lucky, Moody didn't already send out a search party – after all, an hour late off the field is quite some time.

Most people would say that James was at the top of his game – only two years out of the Auror Academy and he had already surpassed people who had been working in the office for ten years. He and Sirius were basically what you could call prodigies.

As James stepped into the lift, he mentally urged it to go faster. 'Why do the Aurors have to be on the last floor,' he thought miserably to himself. Although he was very upset, James was still rather…fun to look at. Standing at 6'1", James had kept himself in shape from his times as a Quidditch player at Hogwarts. With unruly black hair and sparkling hazel eyes, James was a catch. A big one.

Finally, he reached his floor. Starting to run again, James glanced at his watch. 'One hour and eight minutes late. Moody will not be happy.'

Making a sharp left, he came face-to-face with Moody in his office. "One hour and eight minutes Potter," Moody growled.

"I know sir," James said sheepishly.

"Do you want to be confined to desk work?" Moody asked angrily.

"No sir," James said almost monotonously. He knew that Moody wouldn't assign him desk work – he was just too good.

"I don't like that tone Potter. And just because you're one of the best does not mean that I won't keep you from the office."

"What tone sir?" James asked dully. This was their daily routine. James comes late, Moody gets angry, James gets bored, Moody gets angrier, Sirius comes to laugh at James.

Speak of the devil… "Tsk, tsk, tsk, Jamie!" Sirius said mockingly with a smirk on his face. "Late again! You ought to know better by now."

"Thank you Black," Moody cut him off, "As I was saying –"

"Just because you and Black are top prospects does not mean you can do whatever you want! You're not in Hogwarts anymore, damn it! This is the real world and in the real world people get fired for being late," Sirius said in a gruff voice. He added as a side note, "Lecture number six, nice choice Alastor. I was hoping that you were going to go with number four personally, but all's well that ends well." He finished this off with a seemingly angelic smile.

Moody gave an exasperated sigh. "You two have until the count of ten to get out of my office unless you want to be fired. One, two, three,"

"Now Alastor, you wouldn't fire us, would you?" Sirius pouted.

"FOUR, five, six,"

"You're just testing us! You're such a silly goose!"

"SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE,"

Quickly, James ran out of the office, grabbing Sirius on his way. As they turned the corner, Sirius called back, "You shouldn't scream like that, really. It doesn't help your blood pressure at all!"

Reaching their shared cubicle, James pushed Sirius in. "You know mate, one day you're really going to get us fired," he said solemnly.

The two stared at each other seriously for a good minute before they started to laugh hysterically. "That was a great one Pads," James said through his chuckling.

"Ahh, I know, I am pretty amazing," Sirius said mock cockily. "What took you so long? I don't get how even though we're on the same mission I always manage to get back on time."

James gave a small sigh and said, "Yeah, I know. But you also have to remember that I have that little _extra step_ added to mine."

Sirius gave a confused look. "You were there tonight? Why didn't you just tell Moody then?"

James blushed a little. "Um…I had to finish up some extra paper work…at the office…the other one."

Sirius gave a bark of laughter as he reclined on his desk chair, balancing on the back two wheels. "Come on James what did you really do? I mean, extra work? Who do you think you're trying to fool?"

Giving a small sigh, James gave in. "Fine. I was planning on leaving Diagon Alley when I saw –"

"Hey guys!" a loud feminine voice shouted from behind Sirius.

Startled, Sirius lost his balance and fell off the desk chair. Looking up, he saw a hysterical James and a giggling Marlene McKinnon, leaning over the wall between their cubicles. "McKinnon!" Sirius growled. "What have I told you about coming into our office unannounced?"

"It's a cubicle Black, a cubicle," she shot back. "And I'm so sorry, Sirius. I don't know how I'm going to live with myself. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you, please tell me," she added sarcastically.

"Well," Sirius started slyly, "There's nothing a good snog couldn't make up for…"

Giving an exasperated sigh, Marlene said, "Sirius, we've been over this before. I have a husband and a daughter. I am not willing, nor will I ever be, to leave them for you."

"Fine," Sirius grumbled. "Prongs, you deal with her. I'm going home." With a pat of James back and a terse bye to Marlene, he was on his way.

"Well someone's a little sensitive today," Marlene commented.

"I think that it's his time of month," James whispered loudly.

Laughing lightly, Marlene said, "Anyway, Alice, Frank, Gideon, Fabian, and I were going to go out to eat somewhere. You want to come?"

Miserably looking at the stack of papers on his desk, James said, "Sorry but I really can't. I got back late…again. Looks like I'm going to be here for another hour."

Shooting him a sympathetic look, Marlene said, "It's okay, I understand. If you get done early though, we'll be at the Three Broomsticks." With a small wave, she was gone too.

'Might as well get started on these,' James thought to himself. Sitting down, he picked up the first manila envelope. Just as he broke the seal, Moody came in.

"Good, you're still here. You're wanted Potter."

Giving a nod of understanding, James got up and quickly followed Moody down the hall.

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**HA! Not five months! Special thanks to all who reviewed! Please review some more!**

**Isabel**


	4. Chapter 4

Anthony Dolocelli quickly apparated from his office to his flat in downtown London. "Hey, mate," his roommate greeted him from the couch as he flipped through _The Daily Prophet_. "Get held up at the office?"

"Can't talk," Tony replied curtly as he ran into his bedroom. "I have…exactly three minutes to get there," he said as he returned with a large duffel bag, quickly glancing at the watch on his left wrist.

Understanding immediately, his roommate stood and walked over to him. "Anything I can do to help?" he asked as he watched his friend put on solid black robes.

"My mask on straight?" Anthony asked the other man as he placed a mask that resembled a human skull over his face.

"Perfect," came the reply.

"Good. Last time I was put under for two minutes because it was crooked," the dark man said as he kicked the duffle bag out of the way. "I'll be home late I expect." Without another word, he turned on the spot and disappeared with a loud crack.

Standing alone in the room now, the pureblooded man sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He wasn't a Death Eater nor did he have plans on becoming one. He was, however, fully supportive of his friend and what he did every day. 'He does so much to help the cause,' he thought proudly in his head. 'If only there were more like him.'

* * *

Miles away Tony Dolocelli reappeared at the bottom of a small grass covered hill. Around him were other witches and wizards, also dawning the black cloaks and white masks. None spoke a word to each other, as was the routine. They walked up the hill in silence until they reached a large manor.

The manor was a beautiful one that was seemingly located in the middle of nowhere. In all actuality, it was just outside of St. Ives, located at the very bottom tip of England. The Victorian house was surrounded by ornately carved silver gates that seemed to glow in the dark evening. These gates were simply stunning and had '_La Magia è Forza'_ written in what appeared to be the most precise cursive. When opened, the gate split perfectly down the center, splitting _La Magia_ and _è Forza_.

There was not a place for a key, but three small panels and a larger fourth one. If one was to closely inspect the first three panels, he would realize that in each panel there was a small letter inscribed. _M_ in the first, _S _in the middle, and _D _in the last. These three letters were written in beautiful calligraphy, true works of art. Directly under the middle panel was the fourth. This panel had no letters, but a tiny imprint of some shape.

Stepping forward, Dolocelli recited in a deep voice, "La nostra anima è pura. Le nostre intenzioni sono buone. La nostra lealtà si rivela fondato." Facing his fellows, Dolocelli called out into the crisp evening air, "Veruchia. Step forwards."

A tall prominent witch by the name of Giselle Veruchia emerged from the crowd of people. She was so honored – tonight she had been chosen.

Kneeling down, she lifted her left arm and pulled back her sleeve. Presenting her wrist to Dolocelli, another wizard in a mask stepped forward and handed him a small blade.

Anthony reached out toward the woman and removed her mask. Taking off his own mask, he looked the fair haired woman right in the eye. "Giselle Veruchia," he rumbled in a deep voice. "Is your blood pure?"

"Yes Dolocelli, member of the most honorable house." Tony took the blade and made a small horizontal cut on her wrist, directly below her mark. Taking the blood, he rubbed it onto the first panel. The blood automatically took to the _M_, filling it in, making it glow in the night.

"Are your intentions good?"

"Yes Dolocelli, descendant of the great Marcello Saverio." Using the knife he made another small horizontal cut underneath the first. Smearing the blood onto the second panel, a glowing red _S _joined the _M._

"Does your loyalty prove true?"

"Yes Dolocelli, heir to Merlin himself." A longer, vertical third cut was made, connecting the previous cuts. Taking the final amount of blood from the woman, Dolocelli turned to the panels once more and added the last part. The _M S D_ burned brightly through the night like a fire.

Reaching under his robes, Tony pulled out a thin silver chain. Attached to the chain was a gorgeously preserved artifact. It was a large tiger made of pure silver with dark onyx for the stripes. The eyes were glowing red rubies, as was its collar. Dangling from the collar was a beautiful _D_, exactly the same as the letter on the third panel.

Taking his chain, Dolocelli pressed the tiger to the fourth panel. A deafening roar came from somewhere inside of the manor and the gates swung open. Removing his necklace from the gates, Dolocelli turned back to the crowd.

"Friends. My home is now open to you. Our Lord awaits us in the drawing room. I advise you to go straight there. And please, mind the pets. Last time we lost three or four to them."

**Umm...Hi? Lol. It was only 3 months this time not 5...? Sorry!**

**Isabel**


	5. Chapter 5

A frantic Lily Evans ran out of The Leaky Cauldron with a steaming cup of coffee in hand

A frantic Lily Evans ran out of The Leaky Cauldron with a steaming cup of coffee in hand. She was barely a week into her new job as a curse breaker and she was already under an immense amount of pressure.

Within the past eight days Lily had been to twenty-seven different conferences, meeting with curse breakers and goblins all across Europe. Twenty-seven conferences in eight days. That is not natural. Nor is the fact that Lily had worked a grand total of 153 hours within the eight days. That's about nineteen hours a day.

On top of those twenty-seven conferences, Lily had dealt with customers. Oh yes, the lovely customers. There was that charming gentleman who hit on her and tried to feel her up her skirt on Wednesday. He looked around Skippy's age. Then there was Mr. Belridge, a nice wealthy man who owned a series of Muggle bookstores. He had brought along his precious six-year-old daughter, Angie. All throughout the meeting, she was perfect until her father had to use the lavatory. The little monster had gone berserk, crushing three of Lily's paperweights and totally screwing her previously neat piles of paperwork.

And then came Lily's favorite. A Mr. Henry Trotsky. Trotsky was a big shot Quidditch player, the starting keeper for the Falmouth Falcons. Mr. Trotsky also happened to absolutely loathe Lily from a certain incident that occurred during her Sixth Year at Hogwarts. So as soon as Henry learned that Lily was working at Gringotts, he specially requested that she be his banker.

Henry had been totally and completely horrid. He saw Lily as his own personal aide, making her fetch him coffee and do tedious tasks such as picking his laundry up across the street. He would get it himself, but 'The team doesn't have a reserve, so I'm irreplaceable should anything happen to me.' When Lily tried to complain to Mr. Murano about him, he simply replied 'Customers first, self-respect later' and ran off to some meeting.

Henry was also the reason why Lily was in Diagon Alley at five o'clock in the morning. Five o'clock in the bloody morning. The prat claimed that he wanted to meet with her before his morning workout with the team at seven. It was understandable why Lily was carrying a huge cup of coffee loaded with sugar – no one can be expected to be awake at that time in the morning without caffeine.

So here was Lily, stumbling through the crowds of exhausted working people like her, either up late from their jobs and heading home or up early and heading to work. Bleary eyed and tired, Lily was not watching where she was going when she bumped into the man in front of her, spilling her scalding coffee all over the man and herself.

"Hey watch it!" the man yelled, whirling around. "Lily?" he gasped, eyes widening.

"Well sorry," Lily snapped back looking up at the man. She too gasped in shock. The face was that of one she had not seen in over five years. She studied his handsome face, his coal black hair, his twinkling eyes. "I missed you," she cried as she threw her arms around his neck.

"I miss you too Lils, I missed you too," the man embraced her, rubbing the young witch's back in soothing circles as he had done so many times before.

Everything flooded back to Lily as she began to sob in the arms of the handsome wizard.

**I'm not dead! Sorry, I've been on a one-shot roll lately. I'll update faster if you reviewwwwwwww (:**

**Isabel**


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't own Harry Potter.**

"Only you would insist on getting ice cream at 5:30 in the morning," Lily said fondly as the two of them stepped into the vacant shop while she wiped away the last few of her tears.

"Come on Lily, how long have you been awake for?" asked the dark haired man.

"Two hours now," she admitted. "But that doesn't mean that I'm t-t-tired." Her confident tone was given away by the accidental yawn slipped in on 'tired.'

"Mmmmhmmm," he answered skeptically. "Which is why you just let out that enormous yawn. Now if I know you as well as I did five years ago, which I'm pretty sure I do, you really want a single scoop of rocky road in a waffle cone with rainbow sprinkles."

Lily pouted. "Am I really that predictable?" she whined. Sure, it might be a little immature, but then again who was mature in an ice cream shop at 5:30 in the morning?

"Sadly my dear, yes," he taunted her. "That and I happen to be excellent at reading people." At her skeptical look he insisted, "No really I am! I'm a people person, people are like open books to me!"

"Fine then you can go order our ice cream, Mr. Know It All," Lily huffed as she flounced over to one of the many empty tables.

"Fair enough my dear, fair enough," he chuckled after her. She hadn't changed a bit.

"Stop calling me your dear!" she shouted behind her. "I belong to no one and I hate that word!"

He winced. "Sorry Lily I forgot!"

As the fit man walked up to the colorful counter of the shop, Lily's eyes couldn't help but be drawn to his bum. It had always been rather…attractive, for lack of better words. Especially during their days at Hogwarts when it was perched on the smooth handle of his broomstick or when he was chasing after one of his hooligans that he called best friends.

But of course Lily would never see him as more than just a friend. He was a womanizer, a player. Not to mention he was an arrogant prick, even after they had gotten to know each other. But the thing was nobody couldn't love him in some sort of way. The Slytherins had loved to hate him, the girls had loved to love him, and the Marauders had loved him like a brother. Even the teachers did not go unaffected by his charm and good looks. It was just one of the many wonders of his - charming everyone he met.

"Here you go Evs," he said handing her the ice cream cone. Lily's heart ached at the sound of her old nickname given to her specially by the Marauders. She missed them all so much…

His long tongue darted quickly all over the scoops of chocolate chunk ice cream. He had taken off all the gunny bears and lined them up on the table. With a quick flick of his wand, they were marching around like the perfect little militia. "See these guys Lily?" he asked. "This is the second legion of our army."

Lily started to laugh hysterically at the five-year-old memory of their gummy bear army. As two of the five students that remained at Hogwarts during their Seventh Year Christmas break, they had resorted to highly original ideas of entertaining themselves, such as making the entire school into a coloring book or creating an army of gummy bears. With the help of his best mate and a couple of restricted books, their army had reached 500 strong until the teachers had foiled their fun.

The two young wizards continued to eat their ice cream cones, watching the gummy bears march around their table while giggling over forgotten memories. There was the time the boys had dyed Flitwick purple, when Lily sacrificed Alice to the Giant Squid, when the Marauders had cross dressed for a day, and so many more. So many good times so long ago…

Things were different now. They were no longer the carefree teens of their Hogwarts days but fully grown adults thrust into the midst of a violent war. He was no longer the whimsical prankster we once was, no matter how hard he tried. His days weren't spent planning jokes but planning raids and going undercover with Death Eaters. He was serving his public as both an Auror and a member of the Order of the Phoenix.

She too had changed. The perfectionist in her had slipped away over the years she spent in Egypt. She had become more flexible, more acceptable to change. This was definitely a change for the better, although it had come five years too late. Lily was also part of the Order, but she had not yet been to a single meeting. Her career straining had started immediately after school and was impossible to escape from, something that Dumbledore understood and respected.

And yet they stayed the same. Both looked almost exactly the same as they did when they stepped off the Hogwarts Express for the last time with a few exceptions here and there such as his shorter hair or her newly pierced ears. When off their jobs they returned to similar hobbies that they had kept at Hogwarts. The swift motion of flying on his Silver Arrow still soothed him, as did his sketching. And no matter what he had seen in the world, that playful twinkle in his eye had never disappeared. Lily had somehow kept up with her running just as religiously as she had at school, going at least four times a week. Despite her shorter legs, Lily was quite the runner, a little Speedy Gonzalez.

Lily crunched into the last bit of her cone as she looked almost cautiously at his face. He was staring at her in that intent way that only he could master. He had finished his ice cream long ago, despite having two scoops compared to her one. He had also quickly eliminated the marching bears. It appeared as if his huge appetite was another thing that was set in stone.

"Listen," she started. "I think that it would be best if we didn't mention this little meeting to anyone."

He understood what she meant. Should anyone find out about this it could be disastrous, after not seeing her for five years. "Alright Evans," he said, planning on playing up this scenario. "I'll keep this rendezvous a secret on one condition."

Lily sighed but cracked a small smile. There was a catch. Of course there was a catch, nothing he was involved in could ever be kept simple. "Your terms?" she asked him, raising her left eyebrow. She thought that the arched eyebrow might soften him up seeing as he was the one that taught her how to do it during their Seventh Year over the Christmas holidays. So much had happened over those days…

He gave her that dazzling grin of his. "We have more. I've missed you Lily," he said, swooping her into a huge hug. "We _all_ have," he said pointedly.

"I miss all you of too," she choked out.

"Not enough to write though?"

She couldn't meet his eyes. "I'm sorry," she whispered sadly. "There are just some things that I can't tell you or teach you…location, Goblin, description, why there weren't any owls allowed at the camp…so many secrets…"

He shot her an even better smile as he laughed and literally picked her off the ground. "Lily," he said staring into her face just simply held her up. He ignored her annoyed look - he knew that she hated to be lifted. "Lily, Lily, Lily! All this time we though you were trying to block us out!"

Her annoyed face disappeared as she met his cheerful, hopeful gaze. "Never," she said strongly. "Never."

He looked as if he was going to say something but shut his mouth. Just as he opened it again, his watch beeped shrilly three times. "Shit," he muttered glancing at it. "I was supposed to be at a work with coffee a half hour ago. I gotta go Evs, owl me!"

He pecked her cheek and with a spring in his step, sprinted out of the shop and down the street. Lily chuckled to herself. Some things would just never change. But what could be expected of him? Like his best friend, Sirius Black had never been known for his punctuality.

**Hahahaahaha IT'S SIRIUS! Not James. Sorry! Okay, I know that I suck at updating this story...but oddly enough I'm ok with that. Haha but seriously (haha Sirius...) I'll try to update more often, at least once a month. Wow that would take a while. Yeah I'll write more. Actually, this is the first time I've been on the site personally for over a month. My recent stories were not typed up by me, but by my best friend Gabby who took my notebook from me when I was sick. I've just gotten over mono and finally feel well enough to drag myself to the computer. So now that it's actually me, REVIEW.**

**Isabel**


	7. Chapter 7

**I don't own Harry Potter. (Or Twilight) (You'll see why later.)**

Anthony Dolocelli walked his last guest out of his house. He did not recognize the man behind the mask, but that did not surprise him; lately, their numbers had reached incredible amounts. To be honest with himself, Tony was surprised that there were that many people out there that were that willing to the Dark Lord's cause. Not that he would ever say that out loud.

"Get some rest, Tony mate," his companion told him in a gruff voice, clapping him on the back. Anthony didn't worry about how the man knew his name - everyone knew his name. "You look exhausted."

To say that Tony Dolocelli was exhausted was the understatement of the year. This meeting had lasted until around three in the morning. As usual, he was the last to leave his family's estate, even after Voldemort himself had left. He had to make sure the estate was in proper conditions and had to threaten the servants to stay quiet. Not that the house elves had a choice, but it was good to take that extra step just to be sure.

Then there was the fact that one of his glorious white Bengal tigers had gotten loose last night around eleven. They had lost Pazi Slovanjek, a new recruit from Poland. The fool obviously never had any form of training - as soon as he saw his beautiful Bella lurking in the shadows he had sprinted toward the door. The idiot ran right towards her waiting claws. Bella was his most tamed and talented pet and had proven herself useful numerous times; she had a sense of picking out the weak and devouring them as quickly as possible. This saved them quite an amount of time and energy of weeding out the weak recruits and disposing of them.

Raising the tigers was a family tradition, started by Anthony's pompous ancestor, Marcello Saverio Dolocelli the first. He was the great-great-great-grandfather to Anthony and the great-grandson of Merlin himself. He was also the one who built the monstrosity of a house that was currently being used as headquarters for the Death Eaters. Proud of his wealth and ancestry, Marcello had decided that his family needed a family emblem, a hobby of some sort. He chose the only animal that he deemed worthy of the family strength and beauty - the white Bengal tiger.

Marcello had started out with two tigers, a male and a female named Emmett and Rosalie. Should you look up the meanings of the names you'd find that they mean 'strength' and 'beauty.' How fitting these names were, seeing as they were the only things that Marcello ever cared for. And he had made sure that his obsessions were secure.

He researched Merlin as much as possible. Through his studies he found out that Merlin had four daughters, but no sons. His daughters were not raised in England, but in Italy with their mother who was no more than a common witch. Their names were Adrianna, Natalya, Rosalie, and Neve Splendido, having taken the last name of their mother. As the stories went, all were incredibly beautiful, but none could compare to Rosalie. Adrianna, Natalya, and Neve all had glorious straight brown hair and dazzling chocolate eyes like their mother. They were all very tall and slender, not to mention they were quite gifted at magic seeing as they had Merlin for a father.

But then there was Rosalie. Compared to the others, she was an angel among commoners. Their beauty was lost against her. Who would notice their dull, common brown hair when Rosalie shook her golden blonde curls? And why bother batting your eyes at a man when he's too entranced by Rosalie's cerulean pools, surrounded by the longest eyelashes ever? What good was your height when everyone seemed to prefer the smallness of Rosalie? And who was there to impress with magic when Rosalie was a thousand times better at it than you were? Rosalie, Rosalie, Rosalie. The worst part about Rosalie was that she was so incredibly selfless, it was impossible to hate her. Every time her sisters turned around, there she was volunteering her time to help the needy, teaching younger children all about magic and how to control it perfectly. She was flawless.

As the oldest sister Adrianna married first. She married a common man, Carlo Cataldi from the next village over. Carlo was a Muggle, something that was not known to Adrianna's parents when they approved of their betrothal. Adrianna had been clever whenever Carlo had met with her family; He was always put under a trance, never really there but just nodding to whatever Adrianna said. They of course found out the truth when Adrianna had confided in Natalya, who had always been the most selfish sister. Adrianna was disowned immediately, but she was happy. She had found true love and was fine being a carpenter's wife. What was not to love? She was in love with a wonderful man, she had kept her beauty, she had kept her powers, and she had a family on the way.

The selfish Natalya was the second oldest and thought with Adrianna out of the picture that her parents would love her more. She thought that without another sister there would be more room for her, who had always been pushed to the side being the middle child. Adrianna had always been the oldest and the smartest, Rosalie was the most beautiful, and Neve was the sweet innocent baby. There had never been enough time for poor Natalya who had always been ignored. With Adrianna gone she figured that she would take her place as the smartest. Her life would be easy from there on.

How wrong Natalya was. Determined not to make the same mistakes they did with Adrianna, Natalya's parents refused to let her marry the man she loved, despite that he was a wizard. They arranged a marriage with a horrid man, Paolo Rizzonetta. Paolo was a small fat wizard whose blood was just as pure as Natalya's was. With the joining of the two, a great amount of money was transferred to the Splendido account. He was terrible to her though, hardly allowing her to leave their house. It was her place to care for their children and clean the house, despite the fact that they could afford elves to do all of that.

Neve was a year younger than Rosalie, but she found love at the young age of seventeen. His name was Stefano Pignatelli and he was perfect for her. Three years her major, Stefano was a pureblood wizard whose family owned every profitable wizarding store in eastern Italy. He had fallen head over heels for Neve the first time he saw her. Unnecessary to say, her parents approved completely.

So there was Rosalie, the most beautiful and kind out of all the sisters left unmarried for the longest. Even little Neve had taken a husband before she had, which came to a surprise to all. But if one thought about it as hard as her mother had, it made sense - there was no one in the little villages that was good enough for the all too perfect Rosalie. So one day Rosalie and her mother packed their bags and prepared to travel to England to meet her father who had supposedly found a suitable match. Just as they were about to leave, their neighbor Fidelia burst through their door, towing the handsomest man that anyone had ever laid eyes on.

Fidelia was a widow and the eldest person in their small village. As the eldest and wisest, she led the town council at all the meetings and was in charge of all the important decisions that had to be made. She explained to Rosalie and her mother that the man that she had with her was Benvolio Dolocelli, her nephew that was visiting from Milan. With thick dark curly hair and black eyes that shone with the brightest of lights, Rosalie immediately fell in love with him.

Benvolio was a pureblood wizard so it was of course approved by her parents. Not that it would have mattered if he was an ogre, let alone human - whatever precious Rosalie wanted she got. The two were wed not even a month after they had first met and moved to England to meet the family of Merlin, Rosalie's father.

When the two newlyweds had arrived England was in utter chaos. King Arthur had been killed and the entire country was in disarray. Merlin urged the two of them to return back to Italy, but Benvolio had fallen in love with the gorgeous island. They insisted on staying and built themselves a manor in southern Britain.

Rosalie had three sons, Firmino, Bellino, and Luca. Firmino never married, but preferred to travel the world, learning about the different types of witches and wizards. The middle son, Bellino, married Krista Ackerman, a British witch he had met while attending Hogwarts. The two had a daughter, but she died because of dragon pox at the age of sixteen. When Gianna had died, the two were too old to have another child. Luca had also married a girl he met at school, Carly Baker. They had twin boys, Marino and Marcello.

Marino and Marcello were as close as possible, never leaving each others' sides until they reached Hogwarts. Marino was sorted into Ravenclaw while Marcello was put into Slytherin. Still, the two of them rubbed each other in the perfect way, never fighting over anything.

One day when it was the summer before their Seventh Year the two of them were running around the estate of the manor that their grandparents had built. They were visiting the now old Rosalie and Benvolio who had still kept their beauty in their later years. It was just past midnight and the two of them decided to race around the impressive house, just to see who was faster.

Marcello was winning when he heard his brother cry out for help. Doubling back, he found Marino lying on the ground surrounded by his own blood. Open wounds covered his body, marring his perfect shape and handsome face. He groaned and moaned in pain as Marcello tried to keep him conscious, begging him to stay alive. His pleading did not work. That night he lost his brother to the claws of a werewolf.

With the loss of his brother, his best friend, Marcello began to obsess over his family history. He knew that they must have descended from someone powerful - how else could he and all his relatives on his father's side be so beautiful and strong? It just wasn't natural, the way he had mastered nonverbal spells by Sixth Year or the way he held himself with such grace.

He asked his grandfather Benvolio about his family, but Benvolio just told him that he came from a group of wealthy merchants that lived in Milan. When he turned to Rosalie though he found out the truth. He was an ancestor of Merlin, the greatest wizard of all times. That explained all his power, his wealth, his beauty. Rosalie told him the stories of her sisters, about the happy Adrianna, the selfish Natalya, and the fortunate Neve.

Marcello was not happy to learn that there were more descendants of Merlin outside of the Dolocellis. In his eyes the marriage of Rosalie was the only one that Merlin saw just; Benvolio was also beautiful, powerful, and wealthy. The other men had not been fit enough to mix their blood with that of the all knowing Merlin. He hated them for it.

Once he graduated Hogwarts, Marcello traveled to Italy to visit the sisters of his grandmother. Starting at the age of nineteen, he began to eliminate other ancestors of the great Merlin. By the time he was twenty-three there were no longer anymore Cataldis, Rizzonettas, or Pignatellis left in the world that he was aware of. The Dolocellis were the only ones related to Merlin left.

By the time Marcello had returned to his home, his grandfather Benvolio had died. His father felt that he wanted to return to Italy, to 'explore the roots of his ancestry.' He wanted to find out more about his grandmother, the woman who had bared children to Merlin. Rosalie decided to go with Luca and the two took Carly with them. Before Luca left he explained to Marcello that he had a choice - he could either travel with them and live in Italy permanently or stay at the manor. Marcello stayed and said good-bye to his family forever.

Lonesome in his huge home, Marcello decided that he needed a pet or two. He despised all forms of dogs after what had happened to his brother that summer night. And he needed something large and glorious enough to display his incredible strength and beauty. Not to mention they needed to be rare to show how rare he was - the last known heir to Merlin! The white Bengal tiger was the only choice. He went out and bought two cubs, naming them Rosalie after his grandmother whom he loved and Emmett, meaning strength. He quickly made the tigers the symbol of his family. He always wore a chain that supported a silver tiger with onyx stripes and rubies for eyes and the collars. On all his stationary, was the tiger with a _D_ hanging from the collar. He even had socks like that.

The next thing that Marcello did was knock down the manor and build a newer, grander one. A genuine monstrosity. He then put incredible enchantments on the gates, which would only open when fed the blood of a pure wizard and when a charm of the tiger was pressed against it. The monstrosity cleared the woods that had surrounded the original house, ensuring that no more of his kinsman would die the same fate that Marino did.

Marcello took the most beautiful witch he could find as a wife and she bore him three children; Galilea, Remigio, and Emilio. He decided that the most ruthless would be his main heir. Galilea was to be left everything on the condition that she kept her surname when she married. She followed that condition.

That was generally how the fortune was passed down through the generations; not evenly or to the oldest son, but to the favorite child of the parent that was originally a Dolocelli. The system set by Marcello worked almost perfectly, with the exception of a Juliana who nearly ruined the entire structure. That was nearly fifty years ago though and she had left the Dolocelli family for the one that she supposedly loved, the blood traitor. Anthony was disgusted at the thought that one of his ancestors had been like that and the fact that she had a kinsman about his age.

Anthony Marcello Dolocelli had grown up in the mansion built by Marcello, but attended Giovanni's School for the Magically Pure. After Marcello, all of his ancestors had attended the school in Italy and Anthony was no different. It had really worked out better for him this way - he was taught at a more advanced level and he didn't have to see his filthy blood traitor of a relative.

All this had been drilled into Anthony's head since he was a young boy; The story of Merlin, that Marcello was amazing, his tigers were precious, his cousin was no good, and that his blood should always be kept pure. The last one was actually the only exception that his father had explained to him before he passed away. Vinny Dolocelli had always said that if he found a girl that was powerful and beautiful enough and could do some sort of magic, that it was okay to marry her - just as long as she was capable of lying. Even if she wasn't pure blood there was no need for anyone outside of the family to know that. After all, the numbers of the pure bloods were dwindling rapidly and Tony wasn't a fan of inbreeding.

The one rule that Tony followed religiously was that his tigers were sacred. Emmett and Rosalie had reproduced quite a large family. The family now consisted of Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice, Jasper, and Bella. Oddly enough not one of his tigers had ever died. He supposed that Marcello had bought magic tigers, which would also explain their glowing red eyes.

After his threats were made and his pets were fed, Anthony apparated back to his apartment that he shared with Aiden McHugh. He loved his manor, but it just got too lonely by himself. His small flat in London was much more comforting, tiny and cluttered. He arrived there within seconds and fell asleep right on the couch into a dreamless slumber.

**Surprise! I updated! This might seem unimportant, but it really is. But just so everyone knows, I totally made all that stuff up about Merlin - I have noooo idea if it's true. But shhh, let's just pretend! ;) For anyone who has read _Twilight_** **you'll notice that I stole the vampires' names! I just couldn't help myself! I just read the first three books in 2 days and I'm addicted! I'm thinking about writing something on here about Edward and Bella (as vampire and human, not tiger), but I'm not sure that it would feel right...it would almost feel like I was betraying Harry Potter. What do you guys think? Feel free to leave your thoughts in your reviews and take a look at the new poll I have on my bio!**

**_READ ME I'M IMPORTANT!_ For last chapter, someone reviewed saying that they thought that Sirius was pretending to be James under the Polyjuice Potion. This isn't true. Last chapter it was Sirius and just Sirius with Lily in the ice cream shop. Lily and James haven't seen each other in over five years when he...**

**REVIEW. It's super long...**

**Isabel**


	8. Chapter 8

**I don't own Harry Potter. **

Lily walked briskly into her office on the Sunday morning. This was getting ridiculous, really. It was Sunday! Maybe she should suddenly become impelled to be religious, which would give her a break for at least an hour every Sunday morning.

As she was contemplating joining a church of some sort, she walked into her office which was now painted a vibrant lime green. Lime green had always been Lily's favorite color; It was just so odd and out there, she adored it. All her furniture was white to match the trim of the room and the once neat office was now cluttered with endless paper work. Her bookshelves were lined with volumes containing information about runes, charms, math, and other magical subjects that pertained to her job. All over her walls and desk were framed photos of Lily and friends from their Hogwarts days. The largest hung right over her desk and was of her and four certain boys that she missed terribly.

Lily didn't bother dressing up for work anymore as she had for her first week of employment. Today she literally came dressed in her pajamas. She was wearing an old pair of gray sweatpants that said _CHASER_ in maroon scrawl across the back with a small snitch under the R. She was wearing a matching maroon tank top that also said _CHASER_ in the same scrawl, except this was in gold. On the back of her tank top was a glorious gold lion. She topped off this fancy look by throwing her hair into a messy ponytail and putting on a pair of gold flip-flops.

She had barely thrown her bag down and sat in her desk chair when she noticed the parchment on her desk that read "Staff Meeting 8:00. Humans Only." A quick glance at the clock on her wall told Lily that she had four minutes to get down to the staff room. Sighing, she pulled herself out of the comfortable chair and out of her calming office.

At exactly 7:59 Lily walked into the Staff Room. Aiden, Taylor, Skippy, and Dolocelli were already in there. All five human workers. No wonder why she had such long hours. With a sigh, Lily realized that even in Gringotts, which was mainly run by goblins, there was prejudice. Hence the reason why this was a human only staff meeting.

Lily fell into her assigned seat which was next to Dolocelli. Lucky her, whenever they had staff meeting they sat in alphabetical order. Mr. Murano always sat at the head of the table with Dolocelli on his right and Lily next to Dolocelli. Aiden sat on Murano's left and Skippy sat next to him. Taylor's seat was on the other side of Skippy.

"Nice outfit Evans," Anthony sneered at her when she sat down.

Looking at what he was wearing, Lily was immediately offended. It wasn't like he was wearing anything better! He was wearing a pair of torn jeans with a faded blue tee shirt. "Like you're wearing anything better," she snapped back at him.

"Where'd you get those clothes?" he spat at her. "I doubt that you have an athletic part of your body and I happen to know that those clothes are only available to the Gryffindor Quidditch Team."

"Well first things first, if I wasn't athletic, how would I have passed my training here?" she all but screamed at him. "And I was Beater for the team for two years!"

To her dismay this didn't impress the proud man at all. "Oh really," he said in a bored tone, "Then why does everything say Chaser?"

Lily immediately blushed red. Why did she have to wear these pajamas today? Why couldn't the meeting have been tomorrow? "If you must know they were my boyfriend's," she muttered.

"I'm surprised you've ever gotten a man," he smirked at her.

Just as Lily was about to reply with a smart comment about Anthony being able to attract men fine, Mr. Murano burst through the door at eight o'clock on the dot.

"Hola, amigos, hola," he greeted them. "Good, good all five of you are here on time," he said offhandedly. "Before I start is there anything that anyone would like to share?"

Anthony raised his hand. Of course, he always had something to say. "Yes Tony?" Carlos asked.

Anthony cleared his throat before he started to speak. "I think that we should establish a dress code," he said with a glance at Lily. "Everyone should have to wear at least a tee shirt. It won't help anyone if some people are giving away free views down their shirts." He finished this off by giving Lily a crude stare.

Lily flushed brighter than ever. Of course he was talking about her, Taylor was flatter than a stick and preferred to come to work in oversized sweatshirts. The stupid sexist man hated her for some unknown reason. It couldn't be just because she was a woman, he treated Taylor just fine. He just loathed Lily!

Carlos shot Lily an uncomfortable look before staring at Anthony determinedly. "Tony, you know as well as I do that that goes against everything that Curse Breakers stand for. If my employees feel comfortable dressed in ponchos and rain boots I don't care as long as they get the work done."

Tony just sulked. "Does anyone have some serious issues?" Carlos continued. No one answered. With an anxious sigh Murano said, "I guess I'm the only one then. The goblins lately have been restless. As you all know, four days ago five goblins went missing. I have a feeling that Galeesh, Spronkle, Firkon, and Jaboltish will not be returning to us."

Skippy interrupted Murano. "What about Wrollongsk? You forgot about him."

Murano's eyes crinkled into a twisted smile, although his mouth remained in a straight line. "No I haven't. I _know_ that Wrollongsk will not be returning to us." Murano stepped outside and carried in something under a huge white sheet. He laid it out on the table and pulled the sheet off.

Under the sheet was the most disturbing thing Lily had ever seen. Wrollongsk had never been the friendliest of creatures, even by the usual standard of goblins. But still, for someone to do that kind of damage to him was a crime against humanity. Not that he was human or anything, but when he was living he still breathed and talked and had feelings and emotions. Not that any of those things mattered now.

His skin had once been the average pale green color that most goblins possessed, but you wouldn't be able to tell that by looking at him now. Everywhere on his body was black, blue, purple, red, any color but what should have been there. There were bruises, oozing wounds, burn marks, and dozens of obvious injuries from spells. Wrollongsk had been short even for goblins, but he appeared to have gained several inches, as if someone had tried to stretch him as to make him taller. He used to be plump, but he was only a pile of bones with flesh barely hanging off of it. The goblin's nose used to be prominently straight and pointy, but it was now about half the size it used to be, with blood stains running down from it. Lily observed his right hand which was the only one she could see; there were two fingers missing. Burned by a wand in the middle of his chest read _YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED._ Underneath that was the Dark Mark.

Lily looked around at her colleagues' faces. Carlos looked around apprehensively, probably wondering if it was too much to show them the actual corpse. Tears were slowly rolling down Taylor's face as she looked anywhere but at the corpse in front of her. Skippy had his arm around Taylor, trying to comfort her quietly. Aiden's eyes were darting angrily around the room, his fists clenched as if he needed to hit something strongly. Every once in a while he would glance down at Wrollongsk and start to shake. Next to her, Anthony's eyes were wide and his mouth was open with shock. All he did was sit there and stare at the body.

"He was on my desk when I came in this morning," Carlos whispered.

Taylor sniffed as she asked, "W-what does it mean 'You have been warned?'"

"Last week I received a letter," Carlos admitted, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. "It…it said that unless we surrendered Gringotts to the Death Eaters there would be trouble. Three days later the five of them disappeared. Four days later Wrollongsk showed back up."

Everyone had terror in their eyes, even Carlos. Suddenly he looked much older than he should have.

"The war is coming to Gringotts."

**DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNN! AND THE PLOT DEEPENS! Hehehe, I did a super ooper good job on updating quickly this time! Poor Wrollongsk, he's dead! I miss him already, the nasty little thing that he was...not that I knew him or anything, but it's the thought that counts.**

**3 DAYS UNTIL BREAKING DAWN. WHOOOOOOOO! Hehe I love Twilight. A lot.**

**Last time I only got 3 reviews :'(. I guess I deserve that with how horrible I am with updating, but COME ON PEOPLE! This story is favorite of 17 people and on the alert of 30! I'm the favorite of 26 and on the alert of 31! I figure that if you add in the random newer reviewers that should add up to at least 20 bajillion reviews per chapter. Hehehe. No joke. Okay well yes joke. But not really. Please review! YOU PEOPLE INSPIRE ME!**

**...Sorry I had lots of sugar today. Well I'm off to see BATMAN!**

**Isabel**


	9. Chapter 9

**I don't own Harry Potter. **

Lily walked into her apartment in a well-off Muggle area of London. She was however really getting sick of having to hide everything from her extremely nosey neighbors. Mrs. Dewitt, the prominent lawyer from across the hall, was always trying to force her way into Lily's home. Mrs. Dewitt was the single mother of two children who were seemingly perfect. Angela was fourteen and Michael was sixteen. Both were the epitome of the angelic children; With pure blonde hair and electric blue eyes, the two of them seemed heaven sent. Angela was on the dance team and Michael was the star point guard of the basketball team. And of course they had perfect grades.

But Lily knew some things about the two angels that their mother did not. In fact, everyone knew things about the angels, except for their mother of course. Angela, who wasn't supposed to date until she was sixteen didn't date; Instead she frequently had random boys over to spend the night whenever her mother was out of town. Michael had a girlfriend that his mother knew about, but he also had three others that she didn't know about. Every time they were home alone they would have huge parties, which more than often involved alcohol. Lots of alcohol.

Which would explain the pounding music that drifted through Lily's walls.

The Dewitts were the worst, but that didn't stop the others from trying to compete. There was the pervy man to Lily's left who was always trying to lure her into his apartment. Then there was the Jacksons next to the Dewitts who had the worst little girl Lily had ever met. Every night the entire building could hear Karalee screeching about how she didn't want to go to sleep.

Lily's favorite neighbors by far were those to her right. She had never met them; Apparently two men who owned an advertising firm lived there. Mrs. Dewitt had once scandalously whispered to her that they were probably_ partners_. She then went on about how people like them should be roped off in their own section of the world. Lily then proudly looked her in the eye and told her that her sister was a lesbian. A total lie of course, but it was worth it to see the look on Mrs. Dewitt's face. She then refused to even look at Lily's door for the next three weeks. Not that Lily minded - Mrs. Dewitt was horrible and there was absolutely nothing wrong with gay people.

But yes, the right door neighbors were absolutely lovely, never being loud or obnoxious. In fact they were hardly ever seen. Apparently they left around five in the morning and returned well past midnight every day. Lily didn't mind though, it was just like the apartment next door was empty, except she didn't have to worry about new neighbors.

Exhausted from the stress of work, Lily went to collapse on her bed. The pressure was getting to her; Seeing Sirius again, horrible Henry Trotsky, the corpse of Wrollongsk…it was all so much. She was so tired…and she still had quite amount of paper work to finish before she could go to bed.

A quick glance at the clock told Lily that it was 8:42. Maybe if she just closed her eyes for a minute, just a minute, she could muster up the energy to work…

Several hours later, Lily woke up with a start. Her clock told her that it was 2:19 in the morning. Dammit, she had fallen asleep. Rolling out of bed, she glared at the green tote bag she had come to loathe and stumbled downstairs to make herself a cup of coffee.

Mug in hand, Lily returned to her bedroom, ready to sit down at her large desk and start working. But the sight in her room made her shriek. As she stared at the man laying on her bed, she dropped her cup in shock and it shattered on floor, scalding coffee flying everywhere. Lily didn't care that she hadn't changed from her Chaser pajamas, nor did she care that the coffee was staining her rug and burning her foot. All she could do was gape at the man on her bed.

Right there, lying in front of her was her ex-boyfriend, James Potter. "Hello Lily," he said in his seductive deep voice. He wasn't using that tone on purpose, it was just the natural way it flowed. When he used his actual seductive voice, there was no hope, as Lily knew all too well.

"J-Ja-James," Lily stuttered. "What are you doing here?"

"What?" he asked, rising from the bed. "I can't come and visit my favorite girl?" In three swift steps, he was directly in front of Lily, his tall frame towering over her petite one.

"I thought you said you wanted nothing to do with me," Lily accused shakily as James brought his lips down to her neck.

He chuckled as his lips placed just ghosts of kisses up and down the smooth column that was her neck. "Now why on Earth would I ever say that?"

"When I left you," Lily managed to gasp out. She had forgotten that being with James was this…exhilarating. "To go to Egypt."

James brought his lips up to her ear and began to nibble and suck on her lobe. "I didn't mean it love," he whispered huskily. Okay, now he was using his seductive voice. This wasn't fair. "I love you." Not that she minded or anything.

Scooping her up in his arms, James carried them over to the bed and continued a pattern of kissing just under her jaw up to her ear and back down again. Legs entwined, Lily wrapped her hands around his neck while he slowly stroked her sides. She moaned in pleasure as she tangled her fingers into his messy black hair and pulled gently out of encouragement.

"Do you want me?" he whispered slowly into her ear while licking the shell of it.

Flustered, she nodded her head eagerly. "Say it," he commanded. "Say you want me."

"Oh James," she groaned as he bit a particularly sensitive part of her neck. "I want you. I _need_ you."

Smirking as if he knew it all along, James lowered his head down to meet Lily's eager lips when BANG! Lily's bedroom door flew open, revealing an out of breath man.

If Lily was shocked by the appearance of James, it was nothing to her reaction this time. No shrieking, no dropping a mug, just open jaw and wide eyes. To her shock, James rolled off the bed and walked over to the man.

"Ant?" he asked, surprised himself.

Anthony Dolocelli nodded, staring at James, then Lily, and then back to James again. "No way!" James cried out. Lily smirked to herself as James threw himself at her coworker. Now the little bugger would get what was coming, her James would beat the hell out of this guy.

But when Lily looked up again, the two of them weren't dueling…they weren't even wrestling. Instead they were laughing and embracing each other as brothers, as if they had known each other their entire lives. "What the hell?" Lily all but screamed at them.

Arm slung around James, Anthony shook his head and laughed out, "Oh Lily you silly girl, couldn't you see this coming?"

"…No, I'm not a psychic or anything," Lily mumbled mostly to herself as she looked down. She looked up, ready to address the two 'buddies.' But when she looked up she was more astonished than she had ever been. The two men were still laughing with each other, their faces glowing and exerting radiance. They were both so…beautiful, they dazzled her an incredible amount. And then they became blurred, merging into one body. The single man was still chuckling as he stopped glowing.

Anthony Dolocelli walked to the bed and tucked Lily's hair behind her ear. Lily shivered away. The feeling was familiar, yet different. His hands were so much colder and rougher than James's had ever been, yet they were so similar. They even had the scar on the pointer finger.

"Where's James?" Lily managed to glare up at him, straightening her shirt that had ridden up.

Anthony let out a slow chuckle, but not the same kind of laugh he had shared with James. That one had been carefree and innocent while this one seemed almost…sinister. "Oh Lily, can't you see?" he laid next to her on the bed, slowly rolling over so he was pinning her underneath him. "I am James. James is me. It's just that I'm stronger than he is, so my features are more…prominent."

Suddenly, his lips crashed against hers, sending a sense of urgency and desperation to Lily's bodies through thousands of little electric tingles. To Lily's surprise she responded back just as enthusiastic. Her mind was screaming that he wasn't James, but her body was ignoring it. Everything acted of its own accord; Her tongue darted out and licked his smoothly while her lips moved in perfect tempo with his. Her arms snaked around his neck and her hands made themselves busy as they met Anthony's slicked hair. She had to admit, she much preferred James's messy locks.

Anthony's fingers crawled up the shirt that Lily had just straightened out. His body was so cold, until she felt a horrible burning on her left side. "Ah!" she screamed as she recoiled. There on his arm was the disgusting black tattoo, practically glowing in the dim lighting of the bedroom. Horrified, Lily sat up and stared at him.

"I have to go now before He gets angry love," he whispered into her hair. "I'll see you in a couple hours at work. Love you."

Without realizing what she was doing, Lily hugged him back and whispered, "Love you too."

He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and walked out the door, leaving her alone with her paperwork.

**Raise your hand if you think Lily's going crazy! Just so all of you know, my hand's raised right now. K so I saw Batman around 11 last night and it was only amazing. Best line ever by the Joker to Batman - "You complete me!" Seriously, I laughed hysterically through that entire movie. I know it wasn't really funny...but it was. Hehehe. 3 DAYS TILL BREAKING DAWN! Haha yes, I am going to the midnight release at the Barnes & Nobles by me with my friend Serena. I'm not gonna dress up though, I'm just gonna go in my pajamas! I was a super duper good girl and updated TWICE within 24 hours! (I know, shocker right?) So pleaseeeeeeeee review?!**

**Isabel**


	10. Chapter 10

**I don't own Harry Potter. **

Once again Lily found herself sprinting through Diagon Alley armed with the coffee from the Leaky Cauldron she had come to love. It was even earlier than the day she had literally ran into Sirius. It was three o'clock in the morning and she was rushing to work.

Merlin help the girl.

The things that she thought of while she was unconscious earlier were frightening. Although she wouldn't really be surprised if Anthony was a Death Eater, the meany.

…Okay that was a lie. She would be shocked if any of her colleagues were in cohorts with Voldemort. Stupid Lily and always thinking the best of people. But that did not excuse him for always wearing long sleeved shirts and robes or the fact that he was always rude and obnoxious and mean.

After Lily had waken up from that terrifying dream earlier this morning it was all she could think about. Nothing could pull her away from the image of Anthony and James glowing and merging together, James making quick work of his lips, the taste of Dolocelli on her mouth, her neck, all over her jaw line…

Shaking her head of those kind of thoughts, Lily slowed her pace down to a quick walk. She was positive that she looked absolutely stupid doing it, but she didn't really mind at this hour. With her luck, she would run into another Marauder even though the occupants of the alley probably reached a grand total of maybe thirty. But really, the last thing Lily needed was another Marauder on her case.

She walked up the great white marble steps and tugged on the heavy doors only to find them locked. Go figure she was the first one there. Now she had to dig all the way to the bottom of her bag to find the ridiculously small key to the front doors that Carlos had issued to all the employees. Bloody fantastic.

Setting her coffee down to not spill it, Lily simply sat down on the top step and placed her bag on her knees. Reaching in shoulder deep, she began to wonder how on Earth the bag was actually that spacious. By the looks of it, no one would ever be able to guess that Lily's entire arm would be capable of fitting in it and having about four more inches to it. She was a regular Mary Poppins, minus the cheeriness in the mornings.

So there Lily was, arm deep in green velvet when she felt a shadow casting over her. Looking up, there was a man smiling kindly down at her blocking the luminous lights that portrayed Diagon Alley all the time.

"Not you too," she groaned, still groping through her tote.

"Nice to see you too Lils!" he chuckled back down at her.

"Ugh. This is just bloody fantastic. First that bloody mutt runs into me at five in the bloody morning while I'm late to a bloody meeting and then you show up where I just so happen to be at bloody three o'clock. Do you guys have a tracker on me or something?" she grumbled, still fumbling around with her bag.

Casually taking a sip of her coffee and ignoring Lily's protesting remarks he answered her, "Glad to hear that you're particularly gruesome this morning Lily! You never were a morning person, now that I think of it. And I'm sure that Sirius will be insulted when he hears that you referred to him as 'that bloody mutt.' But really, is that how you greet someone you haven't seen in five years?"

"Well _sorry_, Remus, but we can't all be bright and chipper at three in the fricking morning," she snapped. "Oh fuck, where the hell is this bloody key!?"

"You know, I heard that Sirius got a much more pleasant response when you ran into him," Remus complained.

"Well Sirius found me later in the morning and that previous night I had a normal amount of sleep, not four hours," she replied smartly. "Aha! Tried to escape me, the little bugger!" she claimed proudly as she pulled out the tiny silver key.

"Why didn't you sleep well last night?" Remus asked in a nonchalant tone. But Lily knew him better. Concern was laced very subtly and skillfully in his voice. That was always Remus's approach; Play it off coolly, luring the person into a false sense of security while secretly wheedling out every single detail he wanted to know out of them. Sadly, Lily was often a victim of his coaxing skills. The damn wolf seemed to be able to control people's emotions.

"Bad dream," she muttered, knowing it would be useless trying to lie to him. He knew her just as well as she knew him, if not better. After all, his mate stalked her for two years.

"Well why didn't you just go back to sleep?" he suggested like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Or was it that disturbing?" he commented with slight curiosity that someone inexperienced might have not picked up on. Oh, but Lily knew better. He just wanted her to bite the bait, the stupid guy with his stupid soothing voice. Well newsflash, Remus John Lupin! This was one fish that he wasn't reeling in!

"That disturbing," she grumbled. Whoops.

"What was it about?" he asked, cocking his head to one side. Oh sure, play the innocent card now. Just see if it works.

"James and Anthony." Word vomit spilled out of her mouth. Quickly covering her mouth she said through her hand, "Blah you Remus and your stupid persuasion skills. Blah you."

"Blah me?" he said with amusement dancing in his honey colored eyes. "I'm rather disappointed, your insults are normally much more interesting and creative."

"Well I'm sorry that I'm not very alert at this time in the morning, try again around noon." Lily meant for this to come out snappish, but it just sounded very sleep deprived. "What're you doing here at this ungodly time anyway?"

"I have to open up the shop I manage of course!" he replied with a happy grin. "Same time everyday! You're looking at the general manager of The Flourish and Blotts," he said proudly.

"Congrats Lupin," she said, eyeing him up. "Not bad for Hogwarts' laziest prefect ever. Not bad at all."

"Hey, cut me some slack here," he joked. "I tried…really hard. Sometimes." Lily shot him a look. "Kay. So maybe I tried really hard to achieve the title as the laziest prefect ever."

"That's more like it," she muttered. "Now help me up, my arse is starting to freeze out here."

Chuckling, he stood up and offered her his hand after taking her bag from her. "Only you could be cold in early August," he teased her.

"It's early," she whined. "The stars are still out. That means it can be cold"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he brushed her off. "Your bag madam," he handed her the tote. "And your coffee."

"Hey, it's half empty!" Lily complained as she stuck the tiny key into the tiny lock of the huge doors. Really, it was a huge comparison the key and hole to the actual size of the doors. Quite ironic actually. Well not really, but everything seems more ironic at three in the morning.

"No, it's half full, you Negative Nellie! And you complain a lot." Remus teased her. "Now get in before you get even colder. In August."

"Let it go already, would you?" she quipped as she put the key into the pocket of her jacket. "It's morning people like you that ruin every-"

But what morning people ruined Remus never found out. Because the two of them stopped dead in the doorway gaping at the sight before them. There, hanging from the ceiling of the main lobby was Spronkle with a noose fit snugly around his neck. Like Wrollongsk, his body was in horrible shape and disfigured, displaying both magical and physical wounds. There was also a message on him. Burned in his chest along with the Dark Mark was _Nearly Halfway There!_

**Cue Remus, stage left! Haha, now Lily's seen half the Marauders. And yet another goblin is found mangled and dead, this time by Lily and Remus. They're actually very lucky that they got there so early to open up; Imagine the fury of the other goblins if they had been the ones to find Spronkle. Or the horror of the clients had they been there nice and early to get their gold and had discovered him! Also Spronkle was lucky that he wasn't just beaten to death, he got the relief of a hanging! Hehehe those Death Eater are vicious little buggers aren't they? I love that word...buggers!**

**I adore people. Like no joke. I got bajillions of reviews last time i updated! Well not bajillions, but lots and lots! I love you guys! I love you so much that I decided to update super fast...AGAIN! Wow, this is becoming a regular thing for me. I'm scared! Hehehe.**

**HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY HARRY&J.K. ROWLING&NEVILLE! (It's 12:58 AM on August first...I was close...) AND ONLY ONE MORE DAY TILL BREAKING DAWN! WHOOOOOO.**

**Review my lovelies!**

**Isabel**


	11. Chapter 11

**I do not own Harry Potter.**

"Lily? Lily, can you hear me?" a familiar voice came above Lily. She felt cool hands on her face and neck, stroking her in a soothing motion. "Love, open your eyes if you can hear me." Odd, she hadn't even realized that her eyes were closed. But they felt so heavy, it wasn't worth the effort.

There was the sound of shuffling and a new set of hands found Lily's neck. They were rougher and warmer and Lily could feel a small bump on one of the fingers. "Ms. Evans please open your eyes." The new voice was so beautiful and deep, Lily wanted to hear it again so badly. She was afraid that if she opened her eyes it would disappear, like it did so many times in her dreams. Once she was awake the voice would be gone until the blackness came again. Not worth the wait. "Ms. Evans? Ms. Evans!" The voice had jumped about an octave to a panicky sound. Lily knew the voice too well. "Lily, please, open your eyes!" the voice begged. It was a crime to hear the desperation in such a lovely sound.

Lily's eyelids felt as if the weights had been lifted. By their own accord, they sprung open and then shut again rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the bright light. Above her kneeled two figures: one with straight brown hair and one with wildly messy black locks. Both heads she knew very well.

"Hey Remus…James" she croaked out. "What's happening? Why am I on the floor?"

Remus answered her while James continued to stare at her worriedly. "You passed out at the sight of the Goblin hanging from the ceiling. You've been out for nearly four minutes…the Aurors have showed up along with your coworkers and the people from the Goblin Liaison Office."

In the distance Lily could see the figures of Sirius and Marlene McKinnon sulking along the edges of the room, inspecting for clues. Moody himself was interviewing Mr. Murano, who was fiddling with a ridiculous looking nightcap in his hands. Taylor and Skippy were standing a little behind Carlos and Mad Eye, whispering behind their hands. A man she knew to be Dirk Cresswell was inspecting the body with a familiar plump figure shadowing him. The plump figure was very familiar…

"Why's Peter here?" Lily asked dazedly.

"He works for the Goblin Liaison Office now," Remus explained. "That's him over there with his boss, Dirk Cresswell. You should remember Dirk from school, a couple years ahead of us. Bless him, he's just been promoted to head of the office. It's a miracle too, a Muggleborn being appointed in these times."

"Gang's all together, huh?" Lily asked.

It was James that answered her this time. "Not under the greatest circumstances though. A crime scene…lovely." He shook his head, as if to remind himself that he had a job at hand. "Now Ms. Evans I need to take you into a reclusive spot for questioning while Mrs. McKinnon reviews Mr. Lupin here."

"Fine, fine. But are the formalities really necessary here James?" Lily asked. She found it rather ridiculous, referring to each other by their surnames when they had known each other for years.

"Please Ms. Evans, it's my job."

"I refuse to go until you stop being formal about this."

He let out an exasperated sigh. "Stubborn as ever, eh Evs?" He threw in a rueful smile at the use of her nickname.

"Much better."

James stood up and brushed off his pants. Then he held his hand down to Lily, offering to help her up. She stared at the hand for three seconds and then stood up on her own and made her way towards her office. The Auror had no choice but to roll his eyes and follow her.

Lily settled into her oversized desk chair and motioned for James to take a seat in one of the two chairs in front of her desk. "You know normally this position is flipped during inquiries," James commented, somewhat irked.

His ex simply raised her eyebrow and replied, "You're on my turf, buddy."

"Ms. Evans, when was the last time you saw Spronkle, prior to his hanging in the lobby?" Smart man - best not argue with Lily.

He did, however forget her no formalities rule. She refused to answer until he rephrased his question. "_Lily, _when was the last time you saw Spronkle, prior to his hanging in the lobby?" Needless to say, James was a little more than somewhat irked by now. And Lily knew it. So she decided to play upon it.

"Why aren't Aiden and Anthony here for questioning too?"

James knew that resisting her question would be futile. "Mr. McHugh could not be reached and Mr. Dolocelli appears to have avoided the questioning."

Lily fumed. "Avoided it how." What should have been a question came out as nothing less than a glower.

Oh how James had forgotten how beautiful Lily was when she was angry. The way her eyes glowed, her mouth twisted, her face blushed…and he knew all too well that her face wasn't the only place that blushed when she was mad. That he knew extremely well. "Well it appears that the Ministry will be getting the new fountain they've been wanting."

The spark went off. Lily stood up and screeched down at him, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? DOESN'T ANYONE REALIZE THAT THERE'S OBVIOUSLY A REASON WHY HE NEEDED TO AVOID THE QUESTIONING? THERE'S SOMETHING FISHY GOING ON THERE. ALL OF YOU ARE SO CORRUPT IT'S UNBELIEVABLE."

James knew that something was up. He also knew that Moody knew that there was fishy business about. He also knew that Moody knew that if they accepted the bribery the Ministry would be more lenient towards them in all their later actions. He knew that he would be able to secretly disclose this information to Lily. He knew it would calm her down. So he stood and said, "I think the fountain will be pretty."

The fiery redhead started to scream again. "JAMES ADAM POTTER, YOU ARE THE MOST IDIOTIC, MORONIC BLOKE I HAVE EVER HAD THE DISPLEASURE OF MEETING. YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ABLE TO PASS THOSE AUROR TESTS, WITH ALL THE NONSENSE THAT FILLS THAT OVERSIZED HEAD OF YOURS. YOU OUGHT TO - mmpsfh!"

What James ought to do he never learned, for he leaned over Lily's mahogany desk and silently pressed his lips to her flaming ones. His head started to spin, he was running out of air. He had forgotten what kissing Lily was like. It was like he was floating, as if he was the happiest man alive. All of those old feelings rekindled in such a chaste kiss, he could hardly imagine what being with her again would feel like.

He was scared.

So James did what any scared man would do. He pulled out of the kiss and whipped out his wand. With a _crack_ he was gone.

**...Hi? Kay so I've been amazingly busy lately and I'm sorry about that. Since school started I've had band practice, play practice, dance practice, Confirmation classes, schoolwork, hanging out with friends, parties, etc. Sorry!? But I have basically the entire story outlined now!!!! (Before I was just making this up as I went along. But now I have an actual plan! I'm very excited about this.)**

**Before taking my little break I deleted the story "A Missing Spark." It was a story based off my friend's rape. Well it turns out it wasn't a rape. I found out that the entire thing was totally voluntary. She told everyone it was a rape because she had a pregnancy scare and didn't want to get in too much trouble. And I really hate to tell people this, but she's such a slut now. We're not really close anymore and I apologize to anyone that liked the story. I just didn't feel it anymore so I found it useless to continue. =/**

**Review! The faster you review, the faster the updates come! Plus bands done now, so I'll have more time to write!**

**Isabel**


	12. Chapter 12

**I do not own Harry Potter.**

Anthony walked briskly through his childhood home, his friend at his side. If they didn't hurry they would be late to the meeting. Why tonight of all nights did his roommate decide he wanted to join? Tonight, what would be one of the most important nights of Tony's young life.

After opening the gates with the usual ritual, Anthony had had to step into the parlor to give his friend a quick run through of what to do tonight at the meeting. Do not look anyone in the eye. Do not speak unless spoken to. Do not fidget. Do not smile. Do not frown. Address Him as My Lord. Treat everyone as your better. Do not look at the snake, do not touch the snake, do not smell the snake, do not breathe loudly near the snake. Don't even think about the snake. Answer all questions honestly. Follow all instructions exactly. Do not make any sudden movements. Do not pull out your wand unless instructed to. Do not rise first, do not sit last. Do not go near his tigers. Stand when announcing yourself. Do not attempt to sit near Anthony; Anthony's spot was Voldemort's direct right. His friend's would be at the end of the left side. These, along with many others, were the instructions Anthony had given his friend.

"Why tonight, why tonight?" he muttered under his breath as they picked up the pace to a jog.

"Sorry Tony," his friend said cheerfully.

"Do not act happy!" Dolocelli hissed at him.

"Jeez, sorry…forgot this was a no fun zone." They had reached the dining room door.

Anthony whirled around and stared him straight in the eye. "This is a no fun zone. Do not talk back if you want to live through tonight. It seriously would have been safer for you not to come at all."

His companion cleared his face of all emotions, putting on a mask of perfection. "You know that's not possible. I have to join, I have the orders."

"He would have understood," Anthony insisted.

"But I wouldn't have."

Without another word, the men entered the room. In the dim light the faces were covered by shadows, but there were dozens of them. Men and women of all shapes and sizes hovered by their chairs. Only one figure sat at the head of the table.

Anthony made his way towards the front of the spacious room, his friend following behind for two steps. Then he stopped short, as if remembering his directions and turned to walk in the opposite way. Just as he reached his seat the grandfather clock located in the room declared that it was eleven on the dot. The sound of chairs scraping filled the room as everyone sat, the man rushing as to not be the last.

When the last bell rang, the head of the table rose. "Welcome, friends. I see that we are all present, with one to spare. Tell me stranger, what is your name?"

The man stood up quickly, staring determinately at the table in front of him. "I am Aiden McHugh, my Lord."

"What is your profession McHugh?"

"My Lord, I work at Gringotts as a Curse Breaker."

"Ahh, a Curse Breaker. I see it safe to assume that you are a friend of Mr. Dolocelli's then?"

"Yes my Lord."

Voldemort stared at Aiden for a long time. "Look at me, Mr. McHugh." Aiden raise his head slowly and looked straight into his pale face. His red eyes were captivating, capturing all of Aiden's attention. "Is your blood pure, Mr. McHugh?"

"As pure as the finest of gold my Lord," Aiden assured him, breathless.

"Your parents?"

"Liam and Bridgette McHugh of Dublin my Lord."

"Any siblings?"

"Kathleen O'Reilly, Mary Connolly, and Patricia Donavon."

"Your sisters' husbands. Their bloods are pure as well?"

"Of course my Lord."

"Do any of them have any children?"

"Kathleen has just given birth to her first son, Joseph Gregory."

"I see. And you McHugh?"

"I, my Lord?"

"Are you married? Any significant other in your life? Children from past lovers?"

"No sir."

Voldemort gave him another hard look, searching his face for any lies. "Very well. We will be doing a check on all the information you have provided us with. You may be seated and stay for the rest of the meeting. Anthony will be in touch about a more permanent membership once we have confirmed your honesty."

Aiden bowed his head and graciously took his seat. He was surprised that his inquisition had been so…easy. All he had to do was tell the truth; he really was a pure blood, was from Dublin, and all his sisters had married pure bloods.

"So we move forward my friends," Voldemort declared, sweeping his arms to notify them that he was addressing the entire room now and they should start paying attention. As if they weren't already hanging onto his every word. "Anthony, if you will." With a small motion towards the black haired man, Voldemort sat down as Tony stood.

"Friends," he said in a deep voice. "As most of you know, we need to move forward with our cleansing of the world. It is simply not acceptable to allow such filthy creatures to live amongst our kind. Mudbloods, half-breeds, Muggles, all creatures…they simply cannot measure up to those of us that are of the purest blood. Therefore we must either eliminate or enslave them. It is our duty.

Now as most of you know, we have chosen to eliminate all Mudbloods, Muggles, and all those that resist. But what if there weren't any that resisted? What if we had a tool that allowed us to know all? To control all? Wouldn't it be marvelous."

"Well yes it would be marvelous, if such a thing existed," came a snooty voice halfway down the table. "But we don't have time to listen to you prattle on about fairy tales, Dolocelli."

"Peace, Malfoy," Anthony answered with a smugness about him. "For such a thing does exist. The Mittens of Merlin would allow the wearer to control all."

The same voice burst out into laughter. "Magic Mittens!" he cried. "You've called us all together so we can listen to you go on about Magic Mittens! Are we going to knit these mittens?"

Tony sneered down at him. "You jeer Lucius, but I have seen the mittens with my own eyes. They had been passed down from generation to generation throughout my family, from Merlin himself."

"Oh really," Malfoy said, still disbelieving. "Then why don't you have them now?"

Anthony growled. "Blood traitors. When Juliana Dolocelli married Jared Potter, she took as many priceless possessions with her she could smuggle out of our estates. The mittens included. She then went on to sell as many as she could, to add insult to injury. When questioned about it she simply told us that she was taking her inheritance."

A feminine voice scoffed next to Lucius. "Why didn't you simply kill her right then and there? What kept you? Family bonding?"

"No Narcissa, far from it. My grandfather tried to kill her with his bare hands, but he could not. Merlin had cast a spell upon all his heirs that they could not do bodily harm to one another. He had always feared that his daughters would always gang up upon the beautiful Rosalie and beat her to death. The spell that was meant to protect us hindered us.

Now my father spent most of his life there on trying to relocate the possessions his sister had stolen. He had not an ounce of luck. I, however, have stumbled upon the mittens. They are located in vault 2017 of Gringotts."

He paused to let this sink in. a voice from somewhere he could not see called out, "Well that ought to be easy enough. With McHugh here on our side now, we have a handful of useful people."

A voice with a soft accent came from the far left. "No. Only the Curse Breaker assigned to that customer is allowed to travel down into the vaults with them."

"Exactly," replied Anthony. "We need Lily Evans."

**Told you so ;) Review?**

**Isabel**


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